Tracks: New play takes advantage of technology to bring audiences into digital spaceBack to video

“We want to create an experience that makes the performers feel like the audience is present with them, and that uses the benefits that doing a project online can offer,” says Brock. “What does moving to that format actually bring to the project and what does it let us do that we wouldn’t have been able to do in a (theatre) version?”

Those benefits include being in multiple locations at once, using a variety of sets and sounds, and giving the audience a chance to choose where they want to be without ever leaving their own homes. The technical design of Tracks means the audience sitting on the couch at home has the opportunity to feel part of the production in a very different way — by assuming control of the story, and deciding where to take it.

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Tracks — the winner of the 2019 Westbury Family Fringe Theatre Award — was due to be held in the ATB Financial Arts Barns in early May as part of the Fringe Theatre Spotlight program. It was to be an “ambulatory” show, says Brock, which means the audience starts in one place in the theatre, and ends up moving into other, nearby spaces throughout the performance.

When COVID-19 happened, Brock considered postponing the show until the Arts Barns opened again. But the show’s director, Beth Dart, said ‘no way.’

Dart has produced numerous iterations of Dead Centre of Town, the annual Halloween show held at Fort Edmonton that involves plenty of thrilling audience participation. She wondered whether using digital technology could involve an audience in much the same way, giving them a chance to feel not only a part of the story, but a participant in the action.

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Tracks, originally developed at Theatre Network’s NextFest 2018 with the support of the Alberta Playwrights’ Network, features eight stories that riff on depression. What happens when a performer lacks confidence in their work? How can they be creative if they don’t feel positive and hopeful about their own talents?

The 70-minute show is a semi-autobiographical story by Brock (who is also acting in the show) that follows a writer through dozens of unfinished pieces, and also gives a glimpse into the stories of the other artists through eight short, solo performances in music, dance, visual art and film.

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“This is a group of emerging artists coming together to tackle something for the first time,” says Brock, noting the show feels like going down a YouTube rabbit hole. “We are starting from complete scratch, which is scary, but is also one of the most inspiring processes.”

Director Dart says it was a huge challenge. For one thing, the production team had to create sets, sound and light packages that could be transported to different homes occupied by the performers, and then teach them to do their own technical production. Stage manager Izzy Bergquist has had to learn to call cues in a completely different way.

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“It’s a wild time trying to make theatre on the Internet,” says Dart, who is also a producer with Edmonton’s Found Festival, which features art in unexpected places. “Rehearsing over Zoom is a whole new world.”

One of the keys to getting Tracks off the ground was to create a landing page — consider it the digital lobby of the theatre — on the show’s website. There, the audience will be greeted and given options for which tracks, or stories, they want to follow.

Technical designer Bradley King has been responsible for making sure this all comes together in real time during the show, which runs live every night at 8 p.m. from Tuesday, May 19, to Sunday, May 24 (with 2 p.m. matinees on May 21 and 23.)

The cast and crew are being paid for their work, and tickets are available on a sliding scale that starts at nothing and goes to $50 at fringetheatre.ca.

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